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Empathy and sympathy are not equivalent feelings, and as stated before, if you've never experienced the loss of a family member through a brutal murder you CANNOT feel empathy for someone who has. Take a little time to look up the difference between the two and then try to have a reasoned debate on this issue.

No you take the time to look up the word "empathy".

Also look up the words "imaginative" and "vicarious".

I'm going to do you a favor since you don't seem to want to go there.

Imagine the death of a loved one. Most people have experiences to draw from. Now imagine a great injustice that you have felt in life...whatever it may be. Now combine those two and closely imagine what it must be like to be a victim of Saddam.

Now imagine the joy of an injustice resolved.

I celebrate along with the victims of Saddam.

I'll let my M.A. speak for itself when it comes to knowing the meaning of words. You may feel free to celebrate with the people of Iraq all you wish, but YOU will never know the depth of their feelings and no amount of talking by you will ever change that fact.

In college I met and made friends with several Iraqi nationals in the early 90's (after the war to remove Saddam from Kuwait). They shared stories of what had happended to members of their family under Saddam (some of whom disappeared never to been seen again). I've never experienced such a traumatic event. Again, I can SYMPATHIZE with what they shared with me, but I cannot ever know the depth of their pain, and neither can anyone who has not experienced what they did. The family members of the victims of Ted Bundy can feel that pain, but I cannot. Can I imagine what that pain feels like? It does not matter whether I can "imagine" that pain or not as this is not, nor can every be the same as "feeling" that pain.

Celebrate, but don't try to give a psychologist a lesson in empathy vs sympathy. I deel with both on a daily basis and know the differnce between the two quite well.